(a) Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a three-dimensional (“3D”) image display device and a driving method thereof, and more particular, to a 3D image display device including shutter glasses and a driving method thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, 3D stereoscopic image display devices have developed, and various 3D image display methods have been researched.
In 3D image display technology, stereoscopic perception of an object is typically represented using binocular parallax, which is the main factor for recognizing stereoscopic perception at a close distance. That is, when different two-dimensional (“2D”) images are transmitted to a left eye and a right eye of an observer, respectively, and the image projected onto the left eye (hereinafter referred to as a “left eye image”) and the image projected onto the right eye (hereinafter referred to as a “right eye image”) are transferred to the brain of the observer, the left eye image and the right eye image are combined in the brain such that the different 3D images are recognized as a 3D image with depth perception. A 3D image display device based on the binocular parallax typically uses a stereoscopic method using glasses such as shutter glasses, polarized glasses, or the like, and an autostereoscopic method, in which lenticular lens and a parallax barrier or the like are disposed in a display device without using glasses.
In the shutter glasses type, the left eye image and the right eye image are alternately and continuously outputted from the 3D image display device, and a left eye shutter and a right eye shutter of the shutter glasses are selectively opened and closed by control of a shutter controller, thereby expressing the 3D image. When each of the left eye shutter and the right eye shutter of the shutter glasses is repeatedly in an open state and in a closed state such that a display image and an edge image, which are recognized through the shutter glasses, may be seen to be flickering when the operation frequency thereof is substantially less than a critical fusion frequency. Here, the critical fusion frequency may be defined as a minimum frequency that light of a uniform luminance is recognized by a viewer without recognition of the flickering when displaying two lights having different luminance.